Basic Lore

Garou and them

A guide to common Knowledge of other beings in the world of darkness



What Most Garou Know: Vampires 
 * Vampires stink of the Wyrm; they are also redolent of Weaver energies, although not as strongly.
 * Vampires must feed on human or animal blood to survive. They are not honourable hunters, however, and hunt as if it were sport to them.
 * Vampires fear the sun, and are harmed by its rays. Fire will also destroy vampires. This would seem to indicate that purity is anathema to them.
 * Vampires thrive in the cities, and will do all in their power to expand the cities as far as they can.
 * Vampires can exist (“living” is not a good word for what they do) for centuries; they may even be functionally immortal.
 * And, of course, homids may “know” whatever they’ve seen in movies about vampires; most Garou, however, know better than to trust Hollywood’s reservoir of occult lore.

What Most Garou Know: Mages 
 * Mages possess the power to somehow rewrite the laws of nature; they are capable of performing great miracles or hideous atrocities given enough time and effort.
 * Mages are not meant to possess their powers – or at the very least, to use them as they do. Their powers offend Gaia or the Weaver, who punish them for their hubris from time to time.
 * Mages feed on Gnosis, and there are many tales of them mounting raids on Caerns to drink the sacred places dry of the Mother’s Lifeblood.
 * Mages learn magic according to human tradition; their powers run the gamut from Satanic-style ritualism to New Age pseudo-shamanism to Taoist alchemy.
 * Mages can and do fall to the Wyrm. They do not seem inclined to offer themselves to the Weaver or Wyld.
 * There are a few mages who practice much greater restraint, either to avoid the spirits’ retribution or out of genuine reverence for the way the world works. These mages are not always enemies, although many are still opposed to the Gaian ideal.

What Most Garou Know: Hunters 
 * As far as most werewolves are concerned, most humans who take up hunting werewolves are simply ordinary people with the willpower to resist the Delirium and the idiocy to think they’re a match for Garou. Most Garou don’t even know that the “imbued” class of hunter is even out there; even those who encounter an Imbued face-to-face are unlikely to be able to tell the hunter apart from a subtle fomor, mage or otherwise enhanced human.

What Most Garou Know: Wraiths 
 * Wraiths are the spirits of dead humans who are somehow prevented from passing on to their final reward (or reincarnation, or being reunited with Gaia) and are marooned in the Dark Umbra.
 * Wraiths linger on because of some tragedy that makes them unable to rest.
 * Wraiths are often subject to Wyrm-taint, but are not intrinsically tainted. Their taint usually come from succumbing to dark emotions such as regret or anger.
 * Wraiths are not spirits, and cannot be dealt with in such a fashion.

What Most Garou Know: Walking Dead 
 * Most werewolves aren’t familiar with animated corpses as enemies; the numbers of the walking dead have never been particularly impressive until recently. Apart from a general knowledge that these zombies seem to be tied to the Red Star, and that they exist, the Walking Dead are considered to fill much the same niche as wraiths.

What Most Garou Know: Faeries 
 * Faeries are, if not actually extinct, so rare that they are nearly gone.
 * Faeries are allergic to the Weaver, and suffer in areas where she is strong.
 * A faerie’s powers generally have to do with illusion and bewitchment; they aren’t powerful warriors.

What Most Garou Know: Pentex
 * Werewolves who haven’t made it a habit to keep up with the corporate world (which includes many elders) are unlikely to even know that there’s such a thing as “Pentex”; its logo isn’t present on the factories and trucks that do its dirty work, and only the highest-ranking employees of its subsidiaries are in the habit of mentioning its name fairly regularly.
 * Most werewolves involved in the fight against corporate abuse of the land (and people) are aware of some of the “problem” subsidiaries like Magadon and Endron, the ones who seem to have some access to Banes and fomori. Some of these werewolves know about the “higher power” of Pentex and some don’t.